25. Omar Vizquel Vs. Jose Mesa

We take our scene in Game Seven of the 1997 World Series where the Indians are leading 2-1 and are just three outs away from winning their first World Series in almost half a century.

However, the game was tied when Indians' closer Jose Mesa allowed the Marlins to push a run across.

Six years later, former Indians' shortstop and future Hall of Famer Omar Vizquel didn't have kind words for Mesa in his autobiography Omar! My Life On and Off the Field. In the book he criticized Mesa and questioned his passion.

Mesa didn't take to this too kindly, responding by saying, "Even my little boy told me to get him. If I face him 10 more times, I'll hit him 10 times. I want to kill him."

24. Tom Brady Vs. Peyton Manning

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Brady or Manning? The great debate of the 21st century.

For the last eight years (and probably the next three at least), Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have been the two best quarterbacks in football, they have directed the two most successful teams in football, and they have been the talk of football.

These are two guys who both have a legitimate case for being labeled the greatest quarterback of all time.

They are also the two super-humans who have led their teams to 86-27 (Brady) and 99-29 (Manning) regular-season records since 2002.

Both of these guys are just unreal, and they're always trying to top each other.

23. Mark McGwire Vs. Sammy Sosa

Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa never really hated each other, they were never wanted to make each other look bad, they never wanted to involve themselves in a feud.

But it wasn't up to them.

You see, back in 1998 baseball desperately needed to be rejuvenated after a four-year depression that followed a strike, and in Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, they got it.

That season, regardless of how they did it, both of these guys topped the single-season home run record by a large margin, and throughout the season they competed to see who would make home run history.

21. Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, and Reggie Miller Vs. Michael Jordan

That's right, Michael Jordan had equally heated feuds with three different NBA superstars during his tenure, and I was generous to keep the list at three.

During the Golden Age of basketball (the late '80s and '90s) there were multiple great teams that never won a title.

And there are only two words that can justify why: Michael Jordan.

Everybody was gunning for this guy's head in the NBA, and he loved it.

He traded trash talk and buckets with Reggie Miller annually, knocked Patrick Ewing out of the Eastern Conference Finals yearly, and twice robbed Karl Malone of titles in the NBA Finals (he literally robbed him in '98.)

17. Joey Chestnut Vs. Takeru Kobayashi

The Chestnut-Kobayashi rivalry is similar to that of the McGwire-Sosa one in that these two guys are putting up unfathomable records.

However, it's different in one way: These guys don't like each other one bit.

If you've been listening (I forgive you if you haven't been) Chestnut has been badmouthing Kobayashi to anybody who will listen.

He's called him a liar, a sissy and said that he takes every advantage he can get.

Judging by Kobayashi's arrest last year at the Hot Dog Eating Competition after storming the stage following Chestnut's victory, I'd say he's not too fond of him, either.

Say whatever you want, but these two guys have been the top dogs in Hot Dog eating for quite some time now, and they are head and shoulders better than everyone else. They do everything in their power to degrade the other and defeat them.

16. Wayne Gretzky Vs. Mario Lemieux

Imagine if Michael Jordan played in the same era as Kobe Bryant. Or if Jim Brown played in the same era as Walter Payton.

That would be one hell of a showdown, the two greatest of all-time playing in the same era, wouldn't it?

Well in the NHL, that fantasy was a reality, the two players widely considered the greatest in the history of hockey, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky, both played their best puck in the '80s and '90s.

And it was a thrill.

From 1980-1997, either Gretzky or Lemieux led the league in points every year excluding the strike shortened season. In that same time frame, one of them led the league in assists every season, and from 1982-1989, one of the two led the league in goals every season.

They dominated the game and you couldn't look at an ice rink without mentioning Lemieux vs. Gretzky at one time.

15. John Rocker Vs. The State Of New York

Never has one interview killed a single player's career quite like the one between John Rocker and Sports Illustrated in 2000.

The once-promising closer unleashed one of the craziest rants in the history of sports that year, here's his answer to the question of whether he'd ever play in New York:

"I'd retire first. It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the 7 train to the ballpark looking like you're riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing... The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?"

11. Ted Thompson Vs. Brett Favre

I could have made this Aaron Rodgers vs. Brett Favre, or even just Brett Favre vs. The Packers, but I didn't.

In my mind this thing is between Ted Thompson and Brett Favre.

The story goes that Favre retired after leading the Packers within one overtime period of the Super Bowl in 2007. While depressed, Packer fans finally began to move on with Aaron Rodgers, and as soon as the wounds were healing guess who was back? Brett Favre!

This led to a conflict that literally split America in half: Team Brett Favre vs. Team Ted Thompson.

Team Favre believed that the guy had given so much to the Packers, and he deserved the respect. They also felt he gave the Packers their best shot at winning.

Team Thompson believed that Favre had made his decision and it was time to move on without him.

The debate occupied literally an entire summer on ESPN and is still talked about to this day.

Every time the Packers play the Vikings we hear the same thing: Who was right, Brett Favre or Ted Thompson?

3. Roger Federer Vs. Rafael Nadal

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Two people have never dominated a sport at the same time the way Federer and Nadal have. Since Federer captured his first singles title at Wimbledon in 2003, the two have combined to win 24 of the last 29 Grand Slams.

Roger Federer is widely considered the greatest tennis player ever to live, and many believe the 24-year-old Nadal will one day pass him.

However, until that day comes and Federer is no longer capable of playing at a high level, we will continue to watch what is already the greatest rivalry in the history of tennis.

Rafa and Fed met in what many consider the greatest tennis match of all-time during the Wimbledon Final in 2008.